Emerald X20 Unboxing 

Hey Robert, I agree they seem to be a great group of people and care about making a good product. I'm very happy with it. It's pretty much the only guitar I've been playing for months. I hope you enjoy yours just as much. Cheers

Thanks for the kind words! I thought it was a little sloppy but we're always a little more critical of ourselves. Overall, love the guitar. I think you'll be happy with it. Took me a while to get used to the neck profile as it feels a little wider and more of a D shape than a C shape. But now that I play it a lot, it's no big deal. I agree about the difficult part. There's lots of great options. Whatever you pick should still be a great guitar. Hope you enjoy it.

Agree. This guitar has become my go to over all my other guitars for several reasons including all those you mention. It's more comfortable than any other guitars because of the curves. It's built like a tank and I never worry about it falling over and getting broken in any way. It's always in tune or really close no matter what the temperature or humidity. It is so easy to play with the best action of any of my guitars. And like you said it sounds great.

Thanks Andrew! I appreciate that.

Hey Dennis. I'm sorry to hear that you had the same problem. The guys at HyVibe told me there was a very small number of those actuators that had that issue like we had. Guess you were "lucky" like me. I decided to fix mine myself which has turned out in the end and I learned a lot. The only other issue I had was dealing with some feedback which I think was due to the high sensitivity of the ghost piezos that I had put on my X20. We've worked it out with some tweaking of the settings on the HyVibe and utilizing notch filters. How does your HyVibe sound on that 12 string? I'm about to add a HyVibe to my Mitchell 12-string. The guys at HyVibe didn't know anybody that had one on a 12 string. You might be the first!

@@greghowell3751 Hi Greg. Thanks for your reply. I suppose you noticed I put 2020 where I meant 2022 .... my Faux Pas. I was physically unable to fix the HyVibe actuators (both dislodged/broke) because my forearms are too large to fit in the sound hole. Thus far, I have to say I am not impressed with my HyVibe performance. I am experiencing feedback but, more importantly, the 'reverb' and 'chorus' do not equal my brothers Trans Acoustic Yamaha. I realize the HyVibe is adjustable using the blutetooth on my phone however I have not reached that point as I am having to rebuild callus on my fingers again and vastly improve my playing technique. So I know the sound or lack of is not yet 'tweaked' to perfection. I was told, by Chuck,that I had the only X30-12 with HyVibe but as of last Friday's Shipping Video, there is another soul with the same exact guitar. I would be very interested in his/her opinion once received. Regards,

@@dennisbarton7373 So I can give you some pointers that might help. First power it up and turn the effects off. Then go to the system menu to adjust the gain. You want the gain to be set so the maximum level when you strum really hard is -6dB. Then calibrate it a couple times. (they told me you can do multiple calibrations and it's useful). Then if you are still having feedback with the effects on, connect it to your phone via bluetooth and use the HyVibe app to add a LowPass filter at the beginning of each effect. Set it for about 2khz because the highest frequency the guitar generates is around 1200Hz. The other way you can do it is record the guitar with a microphone connected to your computer with feedback coming out. I use Audacity because it's free and it has a frequency analyzer. You can highlight a section of the wave and analyze the frequency and see what the feedback frequency is. Then you can use a notch filter to eliminate that frequency. That has worked for me and now I can crank up the level of reverb etc. to get a better sound. I'd be happy to explain any of this in more detail if you like. Or even make a video of it if others think it might be useful.

It's African Royal Ebony. Thanks for the comment. I agree it's a great guitar. It's definitely the one I grab first. It does sound good and it also looks good, BUT it's the fact that it's so comfortable to hold and play and the fact that I don't have to tune it every time I pick it up or take it anywhere. I hope you all get to enjoy one some day. 😊

Yeah I worried about it at first but honestly now I have gotten so used to it that I don't even feel it anymore. It's mainly the only acoustic I grab but I have gone back and forth between it and my electrics and other acoustics and it does feel slightly different but not enough for me to even care anymore. I guess your muscle memory changes to accommodate. The feel of the carbon fiber fretboard has its own attraction. It's just kind of slick and perfect.

Peter, sorry I didn't reply earlier. Yes, they are individual piezos on each saddle and yes they are individually adjustable. It is the Ghost piezo pickup system. When they connected it to the Hyvibe they connected the 6 wires to some kind of mux that converted it to the regular 2 wire plug that you normally have for a piezo output.

😅Yea, they ain't cheap. But the way I look at it is it's built like a tank so it should last more than my lifetime.

It came with it and I don't believe I had to pay extra for it. I just looked on their website and I don't see them as an option so I think they all come with cases. Kind of expected for this quality of guitar, but you might want to doublecheck with them. Certainly puts your mind at ease for shipping. And I use it all the time. It's a great case.

Kevin. Yes I did. There was a manufacturer defect in the actuators of the HyVibe and the glue failed that held the coil in place in those little speakers. So they separated in shipping and were dangling in there. Wasn't actually a shipping problem. And it wasn't HyVibe's fault either. Supposedly they had a very small run of a handful of those actuators that had this failure and I was just lucky enough to get one. But the COO of HyVibe called me personally and they have been wonderful people to work with. Sent me new actuators and we got it all fixed up. I could have sent the guitar back and had them do it, but I like to do those kind of things so I fixed it myself.

@@greghowell3751 thx for the reply., I am finally getting myself a x 20 with the hi vibe. I would love to get a veneer but I might have to stay in my budget. Any thing that you would have done differently? I am really enjoying guitar so much these days. Looks like you are as well. Cheers.

Hey Kevin. Only thing I wish I would have done differently would have been to understand the neck profile and width better and pushed to get it a little narrower. At first it feels really wide but I found out at the nut it's really hot as bad as I thought. The neck width and string spacing is exactly the same as my Eastman. But down at the 15th fret, the neck is about 3mm wider on the Emerald. The string spacing is the same in both guitars. My Eastman is a C shaken neck, the Ovation is a V shaped neck and the Emerald is a D shaped neck. Just different to me but I've gotten used to it and it's not hindering me in any way. But I probably would enjoy the neck being a little narrower at the higher frets. It's a picky thing. The guitar is really wonderful. Tubing stability is unbelievable. I never touch the tuners even in this cold weather.

@@canadianeavestrough sorry I didn't reply to you directly in my other reply but you will want to read that one. Yes I'm enjoying it a lot. I haven't played in front of people for like 20 years and all my new neighbors have been asking for me to play since we've moved here. I have a goal and a purpose for playing now that has me excited again. I've built a playlist and am practicing regularly. It's great. I wish the same for you. Feel free to ask any questions. I'd be happy to ramble on if you want to know things like what I think about the carbon fiber vs wood. In short the carbon fiber is almost too perfect.

@@greghowell3751 I am going to order mine this week. I wrote a song it might not be your style but I would love to share it with you. I have it tabbed out and in guitar pro as well. One day I will start a RU-vid channel. Thx for the fast reply. My only hold on the emerald guitar is if I want to spend another thousand dollars on the veneer, I'm from Canada so exchange sucks. Spend a thousand extra or save the thousand for the next emerald? Ahh decisions. 🤔

Hi Kevin. So I would start by deadening the strings and then gently bang on the back of the neck and listen if you have anything mechanical that is loose. I had this on my 12 strung the other day. I thought it was strung buzz but my low E tuning machine nut was loose. Next I would reach in the hole and feel for the wires going from the HyVibe unit to the actuators and the bridge. They should have attached them to the body with some metal stick on wire ties. If those are loose they could be vibrating on the body. There's also wires going down to the in/out Jack. Oh and try to feel the actuators on each side of the bridge. They should be firmly glued and not move. But don't torque on them because they are fragile like a speaker cone.

@@greghowell3751 thank you so much. I'm nervous to do anything becuase I don't want to make it worse. I will try all your suggestions. It has to be deep inside because I've felt around a bit and never found anything.

@@canadianeavestrough So 2 more things I thought of. You might want to check the tension on the truss rod. I wouldn't tighten in because it's probably set right, but if they loosened it a bit too far then it might rattle. Just snug it. The Emerald doesn't really need one but they include it just for extra configurability. The other thing I thought of is the way the HyVibe is mounted to the body. There is a plastic mounting ring on the inside that the 4 screws screw into. Make sure those 4 screws are snug too but don't tighten too much as they might strip in that plastic ring. I wouldn't normally worry about that ring rattling but the way they install it with plugging in the cables to the HyVibe first and then rocking it into the body cavity, they are forced to clip the ring so they can flex it around the HyVibe unit after it's in the body. The other alternative is to install the unit first and then attempt to plug in all the cables which is very difficult on an X20 because all you have is that sound hole. On my Ovation it was still difficult and I had a big hole in the back of the body. Anyway, this all could be more information than you need. Let me know if you figure it out. I have a buzz on my Ovation that I can't figure out so I know it's frustrating.

@@greghowell3751 thanks so much. I sure love that guitar. I'm already saving for the 7 string x20. 😁. Do you use guitar pro? It has really helped me progress at guitar. I have a couple songs I tabbed out in that program I'd like to send you. I wrote two of my own but I also tabbed out a few classical songs you might enjoy playing as well. I added all the details, finger placement of both hands.

@@canadianeavestrough Hey so sorry I didn't reply earlier. I was on a vacation to Alaska and kind of off the grid for a while. Yes, I would love to hear those songs of yours. I've never purchased guitar pro but know exactly what you're talking about. I think I had it for a while many years ago but wasn't using it as much and found I was using similar programs for free. But it's been a long time and I see it's changed a lot. Maybe I'll get a trial version and check it out. Send me what you got.

Yes they are. I'll agree. I did a little room recording last night to criticize my own playing and vocals and I'll admit the highs were a little bit quieter which is interesting because to my ear with it sitting on my lap it sounds great to me coming directly out of the sound hole. Very balanced and enjoyable. It's mainly the only acoustic I reach for and play.

@@greghowell3751 that's the first thing I noticed. The highs are way lower than my fender.

I noticed too but we`re talking fractions of semi-tones off. Not bad for right out of the box, which it sat for weeks in shipping. Once you change to your favored brand of strings you`ll love this guitar even more.

why so salty harry? any other guitar out of the box would be completely out of tune. this is pretty impressive.

Not just “close enough for jazz”… tuning is close enough for a gig… pretty darn good after several thousand miles in transit! In 30+ years on stage, I have never had a wooden guitar,(even $2,000+ instruments), manage to stay in tune for a complete set, due to heaters in the winter, A/C in the summer, etc. This is Emerald is still in tune “enough” after a Trans- Atlantic journey… calm down Harry, you’re nit picking.